When we are in the world of the thinking mind, we are somewhere in the remembered past or the imagined future. We are in a world of thought, memory, concept, idea, opinion and belief. We are not here now. What we are experiencing is not the truth and reality of the present moment.

In a very real sense, the past is intruding into our experience of the present moment, coloring and distorting it. All those limiting beliefs and painful experiences of the past adversely affect our experience of life.

To awaken simply means to awaken out of the world of the thinking mind into the world of the present moment. This does not mean that your memory of the past or your sense of the future disappears. You still participate within the world of time, but you are no longer identified with or defined by those memories from the past or imaginings into the future. You come to know yourself as the One who exists in this moment. You know that only the present moment can fulfill you and so you choose to live more and more fully in the present moment. The present moment becomes the very foundation of your life.

As you awaken, your experience of yourself and the world will dramatically change. Fear, anxiety and conflict disappear as you enter into a world of love, peace and abundance. You come to know yourself as LOVE. You encounter the living Presence of God within you and within everything around you. Separation dissolves as you enter into Oneness. This is what is meant by enlightenment. It is what Buddha spoke of. It is what Jesus spoke of. It is what Lao-Tzu and Krishna spoke of. It is what God promised to Abraham.

The first and most essential step is to know, through your own experience, the awakened state of Being. It is a state of profound inner silence, peace, stillness and Oneness...

The second step is to come into right relationship with certain aspects of yourself including your ego, your thoughts and your feelings. You must bring the energy of love and acceptance to every aspect of yourself. All judgment of yourself and others must end if you are to awaken into the truth of life.

The third step is right understanding. We are souls on an extraordinary journey. Once you know the true nature of your journey, you will begin to awaken. Everything that has ever happened in your life will suddenly make sense. You will come to regard the problems and difficulties in your life as nothing more than opportunities to learn your lessons and awaken into Oneness.

The fourth step is to come into alignment with the universal laws of life. If you are to awaken fully, it is necessary to live in integrity in every aspect of your life.

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To be fully awake and enlightened simply means to be fully present in the moment of now. To be present is the simplest thing. It is your natural state.

Every moment, you have a choice. Will you be present in the truth and reality of this moment or will you allow yourself to be seduced into the world of the mind? All thoughts take you out of the present moment. And then if you believe in those thoughts, which most of us do, you get lost in the world of the mind.

For most of us, we have become so habituated to thinking, that now thoughts never end. They have a life of their own. We are not even choosing to think. Thinking is happening all by itself and we are simply pulled from one thought to another, never really experiencing the sacredness of this moment.

The present moment is free of memories of the past and imaginings into the future. And so the pain and limitations of the past magically disappear when you are present. Anxiety about the future also disappears. You are just here now, fully present in this moment. When you are fully present, your inner experience is one of peace, love, acceptance, power, truth and compassion. Separation and fear dissolve. You exist within Oneness.

When you bring yourself fully present, thoughts stop and your mind falls silent. But there is an even deeper level of silence waiting to emerge. As your mind becomes silent, an inner door is opened, allowing an infinite and eternal silence to emerge. This infinite and eternal silence is the very essence of your Being. It is your true nature. It is the essence of all existence. It is the eternal silent presence of pure consciousness. It is the "I AM" of you. It is that dimension of you that exists in Oneness with all that is. It is your Buddha nature. It is the Christ of you, which exists in Oneness with God. It is awakened man. It is awakened woman.

In eyes of God we are all equal, indeed when you see that when we loose our desires and intentions theres only one place left which is present moment, and we are all same here, our desires may separate us but this central, core state of being unites us in love, peace and joy independent of circumstances.

Thankyou web wanderer, ' I had allowed myself to be 'caught up in thinking' due to a recent newrelationship, and have realised that the reason that this individual was drawn to me was because of me just 'being'.. and due to becoming involved with this individual, I had allowed (unintentionally of course) my presece to fade. (I have not even been on the forum for a long time), it's great to be back, and the 'awakening' post, was very timely .

bless you all. p.b

My heart (and being) felt thanks to the force(es) than bring me to share this site and journey with you all.

When you bring yourself fully present, thoughts stop and your mind falls silent. But there is an even deeper level of silence waiting to emerge. As your mind becomes silent, an inner door is opened, allowing an infinite and eternal silence to emerge. This infinite and eternal silence is the very essence of your Being. It is your true nature. It is the essence of all existence. It is the eternal silent presence of pure consciousness. It is the "I AM" of you. It is that dimension of you that exists in Oneness with all that is. It is your Buddha nature. It is the Christ of you, which exists in Oneness with God. It is awakened man. It is awakened woman.

This is such a beautiful passage.

For me the inner door, is what ET calls the inner dimension, it has been opening spontaneously for a couple of years now. When it does, absolutely nothing else matters.

Thanks for sharing these. I haven't heard of Leonard Jacobson before, so I'll check him out later

To everyone:

I just want to describe something amazing that happened today, that is related to the passages you just shared. I had been doing the daily lessons from ACIM (A Course in Miracles) for over a month now, and the past few days I had been working on "correcting my seeing". Just recently my task was to say "I am determined to see things differently", "I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts," etc.

And today... something beautiful happened. Instead of "working", I spent most of my day viewing videos of Byron Katie doing "The Work" on You Tube (naughty, I know!). Halfway through the video, something clicked inside me. In every person BK worked with (in those videos), I saw that all their problems were just on their minds. I reflected how I do the same. And that was when it hit me. I realized that when I am not Present, most, if not all - of what I experience are not real. They just went on in my mind. They arent real, because what I experienced was just a mental or an emotional projection of my own issues and dysfunctionalities.

For example, when I interact with another person unconsciously, do I really see her? No. Because what I do is I make up stories in my mind about her: I project my insecurities, my fears, my past experiences, my future worries, my pre-conceived notions, my prejudices, my own opinions of what should and should be, my values, my limited understanding, etc. etc. on her. And because I was so busy judging her and projecting these things at her, I miss to hear what she is really saying or feel what she is really feeling, or experience who she really IS - at this moment, right here now now. I miss to appreciate her being, I miss the gift she has to offer.

When I realized this, I was alone in my office. When I looked around me, everything looked and felt different. It was so weird, it's hard to explain. It was like I was seeing everything for the first time! . I looked at the table and the chairs and the windows and everything felt fresh and alive and magical! I felt a deep sense of curiosity, like my mind was completely free...empty and ready for what those things had to offer at that moment. Everything seemed brighter and bigger and the inside of my head seemed to have expanded but it felt completely empty...

When I opened ACIM again when I got home, these words jumped out at me, and its timing couldn't have been better:

You could , in fact, gain vision from that table, if you would withdraw all your ideas from it, and look upon it with a completely open mind: it has something to show you; something beautiful and clean and of infinite value, full of happiness and hope. Hidden all your ideas about it is its real purpose, the purpose it shares with the Universe.

I found it SO Funny I laughed so hard, for a long time. I mean, do you also find that every time you have this sort of moment - an epiphany, or moments when you know you finally "GET" something... isn't it funny how you have actually heard the same thing over and over and over again in the past, but it's actually just now that the real meaning sank in? And when you finally "got" it, isn't it funny how you didn't get it in the first place? Because it's actually SO simple, it's like it's just plain common sense? And then you laugh at yourself, you laugh at the way how you created problems in the past because you didn't get it at the time, you laugh at everything!

I really enjoyed your post, entechely. It was well written and carried insight born of experience, the best kind.

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Go back to that state of pure being where the "I am" is still in its purity before it got contaminated with "this I am" or "that I am". Your burden is of false-identifications - abandon them all.Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Go back to that state of pure being where the "I am" is still in its purity before it got contaminated with "this I am" or "that I am". Your burden is of false-identifications - abandon them all.Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

hi entelechy, great experience and post!I m a Byron fan myself, you might be interested in episode of Bridging Heaven when she appeared, search on YT byron bridging, really beautiful. You will also find Leonard Jacobsen in full hour show there if you want he is not too bad looking either, jk, i hope they interview Tolle or Adya and G but i guess they are the big three traveling all the time.The host allan is also very kind and answers each email, great person and wise himself, how could he not be after interviewing 250 saints! JK.